Libertyville teacher finalist for state award

Mark Buesing, a Libertyville High School physics teacher, has been named one of 11 finalists for the Illinois State Board of Education Those Who Excel Teacher of the Year Award.

From among 200 nominations, Buesing was selected by a committee of administrators, teachers and representatives from educational service personnel and previous award winners.

"These are usually teachers who go above and beyond every day and are doing something innovative in the classroom," Board of Education spokeswoman Mary Fergus said. "They are very passionate and essentially great leaders in the education field."

Libertyville High School Principal Marina Scott nominated Buesing in July.

"When you nominate one person in a community this large that is full of great teachers, he represents all that is good here," Scott said.

Faculty, administrators, students and parents cited Buesing as knowledgeable and a teacher who really helps students grow and be learners.

"He's just a great role model, and people are drawn to him as a teacher, as a coach and as a person," Scott said. "As a character, he's so strong."

Scott also said Buesing is a great collaborator.

This is the first time a teacher from Community High School District 128 has been named a finalist, Scott said.

"The award offers the state a chance to recognize the importance of great teachers and to really support good teaching and reflect on what it takes to be a great teacher," Fergus said.

Buesing said he was notified he was a finalist about three weeks ago.

"It's more me representing all the great teachers at a place like Libertyville High School," Buesing said. "I'm only as good as the great ideas I have borrowed from the excellent teachers around me and from former teachers."

Buesing said a good teacher has to care enough about students to make class enjoyable and experiential so they learn by doing.

"Enjoyment means there's humor and relevance," Buesing said. "You have to create drama, suspense and mysteries. Those are elements of a good piece of literature as well as of a good class.

"You care enough to be the absolute best you can be. You care enough to use technology as a tool so that they're not only just learning, say, physics, but they're also learning the skills they're going to need."

Some of Buesing's unique ideas, of which he said he has had only a handful, include dressing as Einstein once a year when teaching relativity, playing guitar a couple of times during the year when students study sound, and putting on a laser light show while teaching light.

Buesing also said he went to Greenland last year with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and helped collect data on polar ice. Libertyville was the first high school in the country to use that data in its science curriculum, he said.

"I might be biased, but we are the best high school district in the state," Buesing said. "There are great people working here, and we're fortunate to have highly motivated kids that come from highly motivated parents. That's a great combination, and it makes my job very easy."

Buesing graduated from the University of Illinois and worked as an electrical engineer and a professional bike racer before becoming a teacher.

He taught physics at Grayslake High School before coming to Libertyville. He has been teaching at Libertyville for 20 years.

"I really believe I was meant to be a teacher," Buesing said.

Candidates were scored on personal background information, the nominating recommendation and letters of support from colleagues, parents and teachers. Nominees also had to respond to questions focusing on student success, collaboration, continuous learning and leadership, according to a press release.

The winner will be announced Oct. 19.

Fergus said once the state names a teacher of the year, he or she will go on to represent Illinois at the NASA Space Camp in Huntsville, Ala., and in the Council of Chief State School Officers National Teacher of the Year program.